Described by Legal 500, 2021 as “fantastic. He always delivers his work on time and without fuss. The advice is always very clear. He is also a fantastic advocate and has delivered some excellent results at trial.” Henry’s professional practice extends to almost all aspects of Chambers’ work, encompassing professional negligence, medical law, and personal injury. He has appeared for the successful Respondent in the Supreme Court in Barton v Wright Hassall LLP [2018] UKSC 12 relating to the law surrounding service of Claim Forms and litigants in person. He has particular experience of solicitors’ negligence and has been involved in an extensive series of claims brought by a range of lending institutions against surveyors’ firms. Henry is instructed as junior Counsel to represent a key part of the Welsh Health Service at the upcoming COVID enquiry chaired by Baroness Hallett, in which he is led by Andrew Post KC, and is presently acting for the managing agents of the band the Sugababes in a claim brought against them by former band member Keisha Buchanan.
Accountants & auditors
Henry has experience of a number of claims against accountants and auditors, and in particular claims for negligent taxation advice and investment advice by IFAs. He has particular experience in the field of negligent taxation advice associated with future financial planning and pension provision.
Construction professionals
Henry has conducted a range of claims against construction professionals including garden designers, architects and engineers. His particular experience is in claims against building contractors for the wrongful implementation of extensions to period properties.
Lawyers
Henry’s particular expertise in this area is in claims against solicitors in diverse areas of practice such as general chancery (including the law of mortgages and agricultural holdings), the negligent conduct of personal injury claims and road traffic litigation, family and ancillary relief, the negligent conduct of litigation, the negligent drafting of wills, and associated White v Jones claims. Henry has significant experience in lenders’ litigation against solicitors, breach of trust and breach of fiduciary duty claims in mortgage transactions, in which he has acted on numerous occasions for both banks and solicitors.
Surveyors & valuers
Henry has wide ranging experience of claims against surveyors and property valuers in diverse areas of expertise. He has particular experience of residential valuations in the wake of enforced sales. He is regularly instructed on behalf of both claimants and defendants in claims brought by lenders against surveyors and property valuers and by a number of leading valuation firms increasingly in relation to commercial property transactions.
Henry’s core area of work is for Defendant NHS Trusts, having an extensive insight into the drafting of medical negligence pleadings, as well as advising on liability, evidence and quantum in litigation arising out of the alleged negligence of medical practitioners. Typical claims with which Henry has been involved include: the negligent conduct of an endarterectomy of the profunda femoris, the failure to diagnose a Slipped Upper Femoral Epiphysis in a child, causation arguments emanating out of intervening cancer in patients suffering from wrongly conducted operations such as hip replacements and claims relating to inadequately administered anesthesia.
Henry has been involved in a large number of personal injury claims acting on behalf of both Claimants and Defendants. As a corollary of his extensive experience in personal injury court work Henry regularly drafts pleadings and advises on liability, evidence and the quantum of special and general damages in litigation arising out of personal injury claims. Typical claims include acting as junior for the successful claimant in a 3 day multi track case involving an accident at Thruxton Race Track and the injury of a spectator, with extensive expert evidence concerning the reasonableness of installing safety barriers and the need for debris fencing to protect spectators from collision debris.
"Henry is exceptionally focused, with a very broad knowledge of the law. He is completely unflappable and incredibly well-prepared." Chambers UK, 2025
"Henry is reliable and trustworthy; you feel like you are in good hands when working with Henry." Chambers UK, 2025
"A phenomenal barrister who oozes sophistication." Chambers UK, 2025
"Henry is flexible and adaptable. He has a great rapport with clients and witnesses and helps push the case forward to a quick resolution." Chambers UK, 2025
"Henry is excellent all-round. He has a great touch with witnesses, experts and clients, and great commercial awareness." Chambers UK, 2025
"Henry is calm, approachable and committed." Chambers UK, 2025
"Has an understated yet steely resolve which is often underestimated by others. A razor sharp focus on key issues and an ability to cut through irrelevant things with great efficiency." Legal 500, 2025
"He is incredibly knowledgeable and he gives sound commercial advice. He is great with clients and his advocacy is amazing at all levels of hearings." Legal 500, 2025
"Henry is cool under pressure, never flustered and has great courtroom presence." Chambers UK, 2024
"Henry is really on the ball, really sharp and intelligent. He is also committed to the work and practical and concise when it comes to his advice." Chambers UK, 2024
"Henry is practical and insightful and has always produced good results." Chambers UK, 2024
"Henry has an efficiency of pleading which is an object lesson in draftsmanship. Very sharp mind, brings an air of calm to any situation, with an understated tone yet a steely resolve to his advocacy which engages and gets to the crux of matters in short order." Legal 500, 2024
"Very calm and measured - always reassuring. Absolutely fantastic on technical points." Legal 500, 2024
"Henry is a rising star. He is very robust and is always able to garner the best case possible with the available facts." Chambers UK, 2023
"Henry adds significant value to any case, bringing intellect and technical knowledge mixed with strategy, practicality and proportionality." Legal 500, 2023
"His advocacy is excellent - he is able to engage effortlessly with the judge and strike the right tone every time I have seen him in court. He has helped us achieve some fantastic results. He is very good at the technical details of the CPR and my go to person for questions of service and procedure." Legal 500, 2023
“On technical aspects of solicitor practice he’s excellent on the law, presents in a compelling way and is a safe pair of hands.” “He has plenty of guts.” Chambers UK, 2022
“He is always reassuring, and his advice is practical and poised.” Legal 500, 2022
“He has an analytical eye and hones in on the key issues in a case.” Legal 500, 2022
“Henry is fantastic. He always delivers his work on time and without fuss. The advice is always very clear. He is also a fantastic advocate and has delivered some excellent results at trial.” Legal 500, 2021
“A confident advocate who is able to think on his feet and switch tactics at the last minute.” Legal 500, 2021
“Clients like his manner and his approach” Legal 500, 2020
“Good in court and tenacious” Legal 500, 2019
“A very realistic advocate, who really fights hard for his clients” Legal 500, 2017
“He is very commercial and sees the whole picture.” Legal 500, 2016
A major claim against solicitors emanating out of litigation surrounding disputes relating to professional advice from Paul Baxendale Walker.
Acting on behalf of the agents of the band the Sugababes in a claim brought against them my Keisha Buchanan.
Henry is presently instructed to act on behalf of a major international law firm resisting a £30m negligence claim.
Percy v Merriman White & Anor [2021] EWHC 22 (Ch) (12 January 2021) – The approach to be taken by the court when applying section 1(4) of the Contribution (Civil Liability) Act 1978 when assessing Contribution Claims between Solicitors and Barristers.
Serene Construction Ltd v Salata and Associates Ltd & Ors [2021] EWHC 2433 (Ch) – Full analysis by the High Court of the equitable duties to be imposed on Receivers when appointed to dispose of property.
Barton v Wright Hassall LLP [2018] UKSC 12 and [2016] EWCA Civ 177. Henry acted for the successful respondent in both the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal where the Claim Form had been struck out at first instance for failure to serve by the correct means authorised under the CPR. The Supreme Court reviewed in full the authorities on the issue of service of a Claim Form post the Supreme Court’s earlier decision in Abela & Ors v. Baadarani [2013] UKSC 44, and in particular in light of cases such as Mitchell v News Group [2014] 1 WLR 795 and Denton v TH White [2014] WLR 3926. That first instance decision was again upheld by the Supreme Court, confirming the Judge at first instance’s decision not to authorise service by an alternative means.
Paratus AMC Limited V Rook Matthews Sayer And Co. Limited (Mayor’s City of London Court, June 2016) A three day trial on behalf of the successful Defendant firm of property valuers at the Mayor’s and City of London Court defending a claim brought by a large lending institution alleging overvaluation of a property by the Defendant. The claim was discontinued by the Claimant lending organisation following cross examination of the Claimant’s expert witness, resulting in the Defendant’s expert never being called to give evidence and the Claimant bearing the entire costs of the claim it had brought and trial.
Fadairo v Arriva London South Ltd [2014] EWCA Civ 369: successfully upholding a finding of dishonesty before the Court of Appeal following a 4 day trial before HHJ Reid Q.C. in the Guilford County Court concerning a road traffic accident which had been deliberately induced for insurance fraud purposes.
Mortgage Agency Services No.5 Ltd v Merchant Legal LLP (7th August 2013): a 4 day High Court action in the Chancery Division before Mr Leslie Blohm, Q.C., sitting as a deputy High Court Judge, brought by Lenders against a firm of solicitors for alleged breach of fiduciary duty and negligence in relation to the mortgage and conveyancing of a residential property.
Winnstanley v Stripes Solicitors: Appeal in the Queen’s Bench Division, HHJ Seymour Q.C. sitting as Deputy High Court Judge, (11th October 2011), in which Henry successfully upheld the striking out of a claim against solicitors alleging negligent conduct of the renewal of an Agricultural Holdings Act tenancy on grounds that the Claimant had no cause of action or locus to bring the claim, none having been assigned from his father nor passed on intestacy.
Ahmed v Ahad & Anor [2011] EWCA Civ 51 (18 January 2011): In a tripartite appeal before Lords Justice Maurice Kay, Thomas and Etherton, Henry acted successfully for the National Westminster Bank Plc in rejecting a challenge to the Judge at First Instance’s findings and conclusions that there had been no tenancy which might bind the Bank’s right as mortgagee to seek possession of the Appellant’s property, and in addition argued that if such a tenancy had existed, that there could have been no scintilla temporis in which the Appellant’s alleged tenancy might have gained priority over the Bank’s right to possession as mortgagee.
Postgate v (1) Dewing (2) Atha Barton (A firm): A two day action in the Chancery Division before HHJ Lagan KC, successfully defending a firm of solicitors against a claim for breach of trust and breach of fiduciary duty for paying out the proceeds of sale where a dispute existed between the beneficial owners of the property as to the entitlement to the proceeds of sale.
Brooks v AH Brooks & Co (a firm) [2010] EWHC 2720 (Ch): Successfully defended a claim brought in the High Court against the Widow and Executrix of the former partner of a firm of solicitors which had been sued for damages for negligent investment advice and misapplication of investment assets.
Education
Personal: Henry has a variety of interests outside the law including riding, gardening, rugby, chess, classics and travelling. He is a member of the Royal Horticultural Society and has travelled extensively, particularly in Asia, Russia and the USA and continues to travel, most recently in Turkey and the Middle East. Before joining Chambers, Henry worked in the Private Equity department of the American law firm Kirkland & Ellis and was involved in a number of high profile transactions including acting for clients in the acquisition of companies such as Jimmy Choo Shoes, Phones 4 U and Philips semi-conductors.
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